Items should show status of containing module

[shr42]

Visibility status to students of items such as pages, quizzes, assignments and files, is not obvious, when these items are contained in a module, unless these author navigates to the module page containing the item. For example, if a quiz is published, but has also been added to a module and the module is unpublished, the students can not see the quiz. On the page for the quiz (in this example), there should be a listing of the modules the quiz lives in, and an indicator next to each module in the list showing the published status of the module. Otherwise, the author of the item may not realize that the item is in a module, and that the module is unpublished, and as such the item will not be visible to students. This is especially likely when multiple faculty are jointly editing content for a course.

[Stef_retired]

@shr42 

Thanks for sharing this idea. Please look at the image designated *2* in the View Status of All Modules section of How do I publish or unpublish a module as an instr... - Canvas Community that displays the Unpublished indicator at the right side of the module title. The blue box at the top of that lesson states, in part: "When you add items to a Module, please be aware that the status of the Module overrides the state of the individual module items....For instance, if you add a published Discussion to an unpublished Module, students cannot view the Discussion on the Modules page. However, they will still be able to see the Discussion in other areas of Canvas, such as the Syllabus and the Calendar, but they will not be able to open or participate in the Discussion. Please be aware of these potential scenarios when adding course content to a Module."

When an instructor mouse-hovers over the unpublished icon, this pop-up message displays:

Would you let us know what additional visual indicator and documentation might be helpful?

Thanks.

[shr42]

Hi. There needs to be an indicator in the page for each item in a module, indicating that the containing module is not published

I was not aware that my co-instructor had placed my quiz in a module, and that the module was unpublished. Yes, I could have found the issue if I knew about the module containing the quiz. But there was no way, looking just at the page for the quiz, to know that it was contained in a module, and that the module was not published. If there is something that I’m not aware of, that is visible on the quiz’s page (in my case) that shows info about containing modules, please advise. Thanks

[Stef_retired]

@shr42 

Thanks for providing the detail that the indicator should be on the item contained within the module as well as in the module itself where it already displays. However, pages, assignments, and quiz pages don't have any indicator in those items that they are in a particular module. Furthermore, the same item can be added to multiple modules—so a particular page, for example, might be in one module that is published and at the same time in another module that is not published. This is described in How do I add course content as module items? - Canvas Community

We recommend editing the item description to provide the problem statement alone (removing the first part, then revising the second part that starts with "Also"); should we move this forward for additional conversation and it becomes prioritized for potential development, our designers and engineers will devise the solution that aligns with Canvas design and functionality. Guidance for writing a feature idea is provided in How do I create a new idea conversation in the Canvas Community?

Thanks!

[shr42]

Thank you. I have edited the content of my item that started this thread, as you recommended. I hope to see this topic get into the queue for development. Thanks

[Stef_retired]

@shr42 

Thanks for revising the description! We've moved the idea forward for broader discussion,

[ProductPanda]

Comments from Instructure

As part of the new Ideas & Themes process, all ideas in Idea Conversations were reviewed by the Product Team. Any Idea that was associated with an identified theme was moved to the new Idea & Themes space. Any Idea that was not part of the move is being marked as Archived. This will preserve the history of the conversations while also letting Community members know that Instructure will not explore the request at this time.